


To Err is not only Human...

by writefriend



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Future, True Pacifist Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-18 05:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5900872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writefriend/pseuds/writefriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen Years after the True Pacifist Ending, Asgore and Toriel meet up after the end of Toriel's summer vacation, getting ready for the school year</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The End of Summer

**Author's Note:**

> Special Thanks to J for helping me and encouraging me to write.

There is something picturesque about late summers to King—no, Groundkeeper Asgore. Sure, the scorching days made him sweat horribly and made him wish he could shave all the fur of his body, but this was also the time of year where his prized dahlia flowers are flourishing in front of the school. He remembers how his mother grew them in her old courtyard and how impressive at the hardiness of these little plants. The man shakes his head, chuckling and scanning the results of his handiwork.

The schoolyard is nothing short of a botanical garden, filled with the brightest of petals to subdue but atheistically and accenting pleasing floral arrangement. The children of the school usually took their lunch to sit in the yard, admiring the beautiful atmosphere of the grounds. Since its summer, not a lot of children visit the ground as they are on summer vacation. In a week it will change as school will be back in session.

Asgore sighs and leans on the creaky, refurbished shed that he calls his home. In his mind is a reminder that soon enough it would have been 15 years since leaving the underground. The feeling is quite poignant to him, and certainly to the others from the underground. Frisk moved to another continent to work as a humanitarian aid for both humans and monsters. Once a month he would get a postcard from Frisk along with the story of the adventures they went on. Frisk always looked so happy doing what they always wanted to do: helping others. Asgore will never forget how much Frisk helped him when he needed it the most. He will never forget the advice Frisk gave him, which to this day echoes in his thoughts.

 _To err is human AND monster. To forgive, is divine._  
  


Asgore nods absentmindedly as if Frisk was in front of him, talking at that very moment. His eyes lulls halfway as he enjoys the nostalgic memories of his old friend and the cool shade provided by the shed’s roof. The precious daylight was slowly dimming and the serendipitous melody of cicadas and crickets fill the air. A light breeze swept over the land, cooling the sweat on the gigantic beast’s brow and filling the senses with a strong scent of freshly cut grass from earlier mowing. Delighted by how this evening is going, Asgore’s back slowly slides down the side of the shack to sit down on the ground with a muted “thump”.  
  
The horizon turns into a clash of warm orange flaring in conflict against the cool bluish-purple sky overtaking it. As day retires into its evening slumber, night dominates the sky. Stars begin to speckle the dark canvas above the school. Asgore opens a lazy eye, simpering at the marvels of life. He notice however, there was another light. One of the classroom lights in the school was turned on, shining through the glass pane. He found it quite odd this time of year for someone to be in the building and that he didn’t hear anyone come onto the grounds. Picking himself up and dusting off the cut grass from his pants, Asgore goes to investigate of who is inside the school. He carefully treads to the window and looks inside. A smile inches on his face.  
  
There, at the principal’s desk, sits a shorter female goat monster looking over a pile of documents. She absentmindedly takes a sip of tea sitting on a coaster on her table, unaware that a hulking goat-man was peering in. The woman kept a neat appearance from horns to feet, as did the office. Her gaze is laced with both motherly tenderness and deep carmine which feels like it sparks warmth even when she’s merely reading. Asgore simper turns languid, wondering if he should greet the woman or go back to his abode to retire for the evening. With a sigh, it was with a heavy heart that he decided to greet her when she was not wallowing in work. He turns on his grass-stained heels to head back. Before he even takes his first step, the sound of the window opening could be heard.  
  
“Oh, good evening Asgore!” greeted the woman. Asgore’s ear pricks slightly at the sound of her silvery voice, turning his head to face her. He waves and replies, “Howdy! Erm, Good evening Tori…el.”  
  
Toriel. That name still tightens his throat and chokes him.  
  
“How was your summer?” She asks, putting her elbows on the window sill. Asgore takes a hesitant step towards Toriel, rubbing at the back of his head.  
  
“Ah, well…” He begins, trying to pick the words out the air as his hand moves around with little rhyme or reason. “I spent this summer planting some new annuals and trees over near the playground. I also had a barbeque with Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys out over near the ol’ shack. All in all, I was just getting things ready for, erm, the new semester.” Toriel nodded, smiling at him. Asgore held his breath quietly, patiently observing the goatwoman.  
  
“That seems like a nice way to spend a summer. I went to visit Frisk in Thailand for about six weeks to see the new project I’ve been hearing about. The humanitarian group was about to go to a dilapidated farming village there and help repair the area. There were so many cute animals and the villagers were very kind, even if there was a language barrier.”  
  
“Oh my, that is wonderful. I am glad you and Frisk got to see each other.” Asgore chuckles. “Anything else?”  
  
“Frisk asked how Mister Dadguy was doing.” Toriel chuckles.  
  
“Well, despite being sweaty from this weather, I think I’m doing all right for myself! Frisk shouldn’t have to worry about an old man like me!” A weaker laugh escapes Asgore’s mouth. Toriel picked up on the old king’s sudden dithered anxiety. She motions for him to come closer with her hand. His legs felt like anchors to the ground, but when he finally arrived she took his hand between hers and sandwiches them slightly. A slight trickle was felt down Asgore’s throat as he tried to embody and understand the emotion running through him. ****  
  
“Asgore. You mean a lot to Frisk, and that is not an understatement.” She began with a sigh that can rival the first breath of a summer day. “I know it was hard when Frisk grew up. But, I think you did an excellent job filling the part of the father figure.”  
  
Toriel pauses to hear Asgore, as he opened his mouth. The only sound that could be heard was the crickets and the awkward silence between them. The pregnant pause was broken with a throaty request.  
  
“Can, uh, erm, I come in? That, uh, is if you, uh, don’t mind me coming in.”  
  
After a small consideration, Toriel nods. “Yes, yes. Come in, Asgore.”  
  
He nods and hurries himself to the front. He takes a deep breath, opens the door, and enters. He contemplates on why he decided to continue working at the school long after Frisk graduated. _“This is your life now.”_  
  
His meticulous strides soon halted as he stumbles upon the principal’s office. He raises a fist to knock at the door but he was a moment too late as it swings open with a whining creak of the hinges. Toriel stands on the other side looking up at the beast of a man. She bows her head, gestures, and invites the man in to her office.


	2. Recollection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part two. enjoy

Toriel’s office hinted to the elements of how their home was like many, many decades ago. Soft light from the ceiling lamp shines on the wheat yellow walls. On the walls were simple pictures of childlike creations, ranging from space and aliens to castles and princesses. The pictures were framed and cherished with the cleaning touch only a mother could provide. The cinnamon wooden desk was heavily polished with neat little piles of papers here and there, but in the middle was a manila folder with documents scattered above it. In the corner near the door, an electric kettle was plugged in with steam fuming from the tip. Teabags in a variety of flavors are next to the kettle in a small plastic container on the table, along with small tea cups. Toriel had definitely set things up for an evening of work and is planning on doing so comfortably.

“Get yourself comfortable, Asgore. I’ll make us some tea.” Asgore nodded in response and sits down at the desk while Toriel goes over to the little tea station set up and opens teabags to put in the cup.

The one thing he did find rather bittersweet about the room was sitting in a lonesome corner underneath the window. He has given Toriel a potted azalea shrub for her birthday about ten years ago, and he remembered taking great pride of picking the most beautiful one out for her. He remembered it like yesterday, how she saw it outside in a round purple pot and how she hugged him and thanked him for the gift. It was the most joyous emotion he got from her in a long time; and to this day up until now he regarded it as a regrowth of…tolerance? Friendship? That detail not much mattered to him as his attempt of gift giving in the past on her birthday had been met with harsh insults and dagger-like staring. It was a positive outlook to him and he accepted the gesture, even though it was small.

But the plant today tells a different story.

The leaves had dried and fallen into the pot along with the crisp fuchsia petals that once adorned and decorated the lively shrub. The season had ended for azaleas and its beauty diminished. Asgore frowns and shrugs lightly at the “dead” plant, coming to the conclusion that the season’s changes are like life. His cloudy thoughts is interrupted abruptly by Toriel returning with two cups filled with a honey colored liquid. She places the cups down gingerly and sits at the other side of the desk, facing her former husband and current groundskeeper.

“It’s nice having a conversation partner when I do my work.” Stated Toriel, after taking a sip of the mug. She sighs in content as the liquid warms her senses up. Asgore smirks at the goat woman’s bliss and takes a quick whiff of the tea offered to him. The slightly floral scent hinted at the the ambrosial Golden Flower tea he fancies. “Why, Tori…el!” Asgore stumbles over his words but maintains his praise. “You shouldn’t have!”

“You almost act like I don’t know you.” She lifts a brow, putting the tea down. Seeing Asgore nervously grin is admittedly cute to her, but she fought back the blush that tried to creep on her face and started her work. “This year’s going to have a bit of a bigger population of students than last year ever since the redistricting, you know.” Asgore nodded slowly, and takes a dainty sip of his nectar. “Oh dear, do you think the school could handle it?”

Toriel frowns slightly. “It may be a stretch on our resources, but It’ll have to do…A good thing though is that we have such great staff working here. We can make this work.”

Asgore grins, his cheeks reddening. “That we do, that we do. We’ll raise these kids well to be great adults.”

Toriel nods, looking back down at her papers. There was a pregnant pause between the two as the sound of their breathing fills the air with a strange but familiar ambience. As soon as Asgore finally settled down into his chair, Toriel with her eyes still on the paper asked an innocuous but unexpected question.

“Asgore, do you think I am a good mother to Frisk?”

The caprine male almost spat out his tea all over the desk. The drink dribbles down his chin onto his beard.

“Erm…excuse m-me?”

“Do you,” She points her finger at Asgore’s snoot while writing with her dominate hand. “Think that I, Toriel,” She turns the finger back to herself, looking her eyes upward at the man momentarily before going back to her work. “Did a good job raising Frisk?”

Asgore pauses to think about Toriel’s question, scratching and pulling at his beard. With a wide simper, he responded, “Well, I think you did a very good job raising Frisk, much so if not more, than I did. But there was one thing I think we gave her, and that was a family. After all, that’s all what you and I longed for, wasn’t it?”

Toriel stopped writing to think about what Asgore uttered. The feeling of family over the past 15 years have been nice, but she was unsure how Frisk felt knowing that her parents were separated and only did this because the child wanted it. To her, she never knew if that was the right thing to do. She remembered how vehemently opposed she was to the idea. And out of nowhere, she remember how badly she shouted at Frisk at the dinner table that night when they talked about it…

“Why do you want Asgore, out of all monsters, as your father? Don’t you realize, my child, he tried to kill you?! He’s a murderer! He’s an evil coward! Give him the same compassion, the same feelings he showed towards those children after he took their souls and…and…THREW THEM DOWN THERE!”

Toriel’s breathing became heavier from the unwanted memory. She puts her head down onto the palm of her hands, mouthing the word ‘murderer’ to herself. The fur on the back of her neck sticks up. Asgore sat in confusion at the principal. She went from relaxed to tense rather quickly, and he thought he said nothing wrong to her. He puts a hand down on her shoulder.

“Tori? Hey, Tori? Are you ok—“

The caprine woman slams her fist down onto the table with a loud thud! Asgore retracted his hand quickly, startled at the woman’s sudden change in demeanor. Toriel stands up with her head pointed down at the desk. She mumbles, leaving the office without dare raising herself. “I’m…sorry. I’ll be back.”

Toriel shuts the door behind her and starts pacing slowly down the empty hallway. She shakes her head, shocked at her unexpected outburst and anxiety. It’s been a while since she felt the uncontrollable urge to yell at her ex-husband. She had gotten so used to Asgore working at the school and being around children. He seems like a fantastic father figure, with the patience of a saint and extroverted with his friendliness, and yet…

He had done things that appalled her senses.

She presses her forehead to the wall and wept. They are friends now, but she had intentions to leave him after the underground and start her life as a teacher. She wanted to be the one to raise Frisk and she wanted to raise them alone. In the caprine’s mind, she had it all planned out for Frisk’s upbringing: what curricular activities she had planned out for them to learn and where they would live outside the underground. When things seemed all figured out...

It was the child that made her miserable by throwing a wrench into the plan. By bringing him into the mix. Toriel didn’t want to admit this but she didn’t understand why Frisk was willing to give him a chance. After all, everyone saw the dislike for him. He was a piece of irredeemable trash and there was a damn good reason to dislike him. His proclaims that night, that entire declaration of the destruction of the human race. That monster, that fucker who doesn’t care about lives.

But now? They’re on friendly terms today. But why?

The goat woman sighs, wiping the tears with the sleeves of her blue cardigan. She recalls the words her child said a long time ago.

“To err is both human and monster,” She whispered to herself. 

She heard a voice behind her, responding quietly to what she murmured. “To forgive is divine.”

Toriel spins on her heels to face her ex-husband who crept behind her like her own shadow. He said nothing to the woman but judging by the amount of wrinkles on his face, it spoke loud to her of his concern.


End file.
